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Arts:Energy Partnership

Showcasing the Relationship between Energy Access and Creative Potential in Emerging Markets.

The Arts: Energy Partnership showcases the impacts of energy access on creativity, giving a platform to some of Africa’s most talented creative individuals.

Art can provide a powerful voice to individuals and communities. The expressive nature of art and performance can transform people’s quality of life and positively impact the world we live in – the same can be said about access to energy.

This partnership uses the Arts; a medium of boundless communication, to shine a light on the influence energy has had on the socio-economic and cultural progression of developing communities and markets. Quite beautifully, power access in turn has allowed such creative outlets to take shape and flourish.

The Arts: Energy Partnership wishes to celebrate the links between the design world and the energy sector. Artists’ working hours, choice of material and visual interpretation are directly linked to their ability to access electricity, and for this purpose, EnergyNet is excited to showcase such incredible representations to our international partners.

We welcome you to join us on our electrifying journey.

If you have an example of how energy access has empowered artistic expression, we’d love to hear about it. Our contact details are below.

Arts - Energy Partnership at AEF 2017

This year's AEF was hosted at the Bella Center in Copenhagen from 7-9 June, attracting 2,000 participants from 77 countries - 33 of those being African. 11 African students attended the Forum, joining the sessions and networking breaks as part of EnergyNet's Student Engagement Initiative. A number of deals also took place at this year’s Forum including announcements from USTDA, World Bank and InfraCo Africa.

Alongside the private exhibition of solution providers, the Off the Grid Village exhibition area evolved this year to include even more companies supplying off-grid technologies and finance solutions.

New for 2017, in collaboration with our Arts – Energy Partnership, the Innovation Theatre hosted inspiring talks and presentations on energy access as well as visual art, creative design and natural navigation. Speaker’s included world renowned artist Olafur Eliasson, LAGI and Tristan Gooley, the Natural Navigator. The off grid Village was also home to our Energy Photo of the Year exhibition, showcasing this year’s winning photos along with a number of other outstanding entries we received.

View some of the Arts highlights from AEF 2017 below:

Energy Photo of the Year 2017: Winners

The voting polls are now closed to vote for your favourite Photographic Excellence and Social Impact Photos.

We have collated the totals and, with almost 700 votes in each category, we would like to thank you all for your participation in this year’s competition.

Without further delay, we are delighted to announce our 2017 Winners:

Photographic Excellence Category Winner:

"Flight of the Barn Owl"

Submitted by Nandu Bhula

ACWA Power / Bokpoort CSP

Social Impact Category Winner:

"Longido Village"

Submitted by Antipas Sabas Marandu

Congratulations to both winners.

The competition gives our clients the opportunity to ‘get creative’ & submit their most inspirational images of energy access & power projects across Africa, showcasing the impact of energy access on the continent’s landscape or on people’s lives.

Thank you for your [em]powering images!

Energy Photo of the Year Competition

EnergyNet's annual Photo Competition is one of our most inspiring Arts projects. This competition gives our clients the opportunity to submit their most inspirational images of energy access and power projects.

The purpose of the competition is to showcase current power projects taking place throughout Africa, and to reinforce the idea that energy access cannot only transform an individual life but that of entire communities. The competition is an opportunity to present snapshots of creativity which come in the forms of energy access or as a result of it.

EnergyNet's Managing Director Simon Gosling and Anshu Bahanda, Founder of Aabru Arts, caught up with CNBC Africa to discuss how the partnership came about, and what it sets out to achieve.

“I am very pleased about the Aabru Art:EnergyNet partnership. This is part of our commitment to helping the artists with what we understand is one of their biggest problems – energy access! Art is about making a difference to the world that we live in – and so is power.

At Aabru Art we have the privilege of working with some amazing African artists, producing pieces that will go down in history and become legendary. We would love to share these pieces with you and to hear your views on our art and artists.” Anshu Bahanda, Founder, Aabru Art.

For more information about the Arts Energy Partnerships and how to get involved please contact: